


If You Need Me

by orphan_account



Category: Breaking Benjamin (Band)
Genre: M/M, but serious pre-relationship, like they're gonna end up together duh, not necessarily foistley, some cute fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 21:29:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6627202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Person A and Person B of your OTP share an apartment, but have separate rooms. Person B has a nightmare one night and is really rattled by it. They get out of bed and walk down the hallway to knock on Person A’s door. The door is already open and Person B walks into the room silently. They go up to Person A’s bed to find that they’re already awake. Person B tells Person A that they had a nightmare. Person A scoots over in the bed and lets Person B curl up with them and they fall asleep like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Need Me

Shaun shot up in bed, breathing hard and shaking visibly. That damn nightmare again, it never ceased to fuck up his sleeping schedule at least once a week, and he was getting really tired of it. It was always the same nightmare too, night after night, week after week, month after month.

The nightmare where no one could see or hear or touch him and he was forced to spend the rest of his life alone and untouched, unloved. 

It always made him feel really small and lonely after he woke up, always seeking human interaction. But since he always woke up from it at like two in the morning, usually no one was awake, and no one liked to be woken up by a panicked phone call if they’d been sleeping. So normally, Shaun was forced to suffer alone.

Just like in his dream. 

However, now that he was living with Ben for a while, Shaun was hoping that the singer was still awake, as he knew that Ben was a night owl. 

He padded down the hallway to Ben’s room and knocked on the door softly, noting with relief the glow that came from under the door.

Hopefully that meant that the older man was still awake and hadn’t just fallen asleep with the light on.

“Yeah?” Came Ben’s voice from inside. Shaun pushed the door open and shyly poked his head in. “Shaun? Isn’t it like three in the morning or something? What are you still doing awake?”

“Could ask you the same question,” Shaun said quietly.

“Eh, just couldn’t sleep. I thought you were asleep though. Your light was off before when I went to get some water. Come in already, stop hovering in the door.” 

Shaun left the doorway hesitantly, going to stand by Ben’s bed where the other man was sitting. 

“What'cha working on?” he asked, seeing that Ben had his laptop and a notebook on the bed next to him.

“Just messing around with some lyrics. Nothing special.” Ben patted the bed next to him. “Sit if you want. You don’t need to stand there.”

The singer gave Shaun one of those pretty smiles, the smile that had made Shaun develop such a massive crush on Ben. 

“Shaun?” Ben’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “You gonna sit?”

“Oh, yeah!” Shaun flopped down onto the bed, making Ben smile. 

“Careful of Lacey. She’s sleeping over there somewhere.”

“Oh!” Shaun looked around, found the black and white cat blinking sleepily at him from the foot of the bed. “Sorry Lace.” He reached out to rub the little cat’s head, making her purr softly.

“So why are you awake still?” Ben asked curiously, closing his laptop. Shaun looked down, a little embarrassed now by the reason that he had come to find Ben. “Shaun?”

“I...this is gonna seem stupid. I had a nightmare. I keep having it and it freaks me out every time. I know that I should just be an adult and get over it but…”

“What is this nightmare about?” Ben asked softly, and Shaun looked up at him in surprise.

“You don’t think it’s stupid?”

“Of course not! Anyone who’s told you that it’s childish to be scared of nightmares isn’t human. Everyone’s allowed to be afraid of things.”

“Oh...I’m glad you don’t think it’s dumb.”

“Tell me,” Ben said gently. “Maybe then you won’t think it’s so scary.”

“Well,” Shaun started. “It’s always the same nightmare and I get it every once in awhile. Probably every week. It starts off as a normal day in my life or whatever, but then I realize that no one can see or hear me. It’s like I’m completely alone in the world, and I have to live my entire life like that. So I always wake up freaked out and needing to know that someone can see or hear me.”

“And that person was me this time?” Ben asked and Shaun nodded, looking back down at his lap bashfully.

“Yeah...thanks by the way. Even though you didn’t know what you were helping me with.”

“Hey, do you wanna just stay here?”

“Huh?”

“Like, stay in my room and sleep? I probably won’t go to bed for awhile, so do you just want to sleep here and I’ll wake you up when I’m gonna go to bed?”

“You’d let me do that?” Shaun asked and Ben nodded. 

“Yeah, why not? If you’re not gonna be bothered by the light and my typing or writing.”

The only light that Ben had on was a small one by the side of his bed, casting a dim, warm glow over the area. Shaun figured that he could so deal with that. As for the sound of Ben typing or writing, he actually found that soothing.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. I can rest if nothing else. Just don’t hesitate to kick me out when you want to sleep okay?”

“I’ll remember that,” Ben said with a grin. “But you’re guaranteed at least another hour. I made the mistake of drinking coffee really late, and now I’m paying for it.”

Shaun laughed as he laid down on the other side of the bed under the covers, careful not to kick Lacey as he did so. 

“I’ve been there, done that, don’t feel bad.”

“Get some rest Shaun.”

“Will do. Thanks for all this by the way. I appreciate it.”

Ben shrugged. “No problem for me. Glad I could help you out.”

With that, Shaun curled up to try and sleep and Ben went back to his work. And Shaun had thought right in that the singer’s typing and writing would be comforting to him. And as an added bonus, he found out that Ben had a tendency to sing or hum under his breath at times, as if to check that the lyrics he was writing sounded good. 

Needless to say, the drummer fell back asleep rather quickly. 

~~~

Shaun woke up when the bed dipped.

He noticed that the room was completely dark now, the lamp having been turned off.

“Ben?” he mumbled. “Wh-?”

“Shhh just go back to sleep,” came Ben’s voice from next to him. 

“Are you going to bed? Here, lemme go back to my ro-”

“No you can stay here,” Ben interrupted him. 

“But I thought-”

“You were sleeping so well, I didn’t want to disturb you. I don’t mind, you can just stay here if you want.” 

“I don’t want to be a nuisance though...this is your bed. I can go back to my own.” 

But Ben obviously disagreed because he curled an arm around Shaun’s waist, as if to keep him there.

“Stay here,” the singer murmured softly. “S’okay I promise. You’ll sleep better here. That way if you have that nightmare again, you can wake me up and not have to go all the way down the hall to my room.”

“I don’t want to wake you up for a silly thing like that! You were still awake, I wasn’t ever gonna wake you up if you were already asleep!” Shaun struggled to sit up but Ben’s arm kept him in place.

“I don’t mind, I already told you that. If you need to wake me up, you wake me up alright? Even if you’re sleeping in your own room and you have a nightmare again. You come down that hall and you wake me up.” Ben sounded deadly serious so Shaun nodded.

“Okay…”

“So go back to sleep. I’ll be here if you need me.” 

“Okay. Thanks again.” Shaun expected Ben to roll back over, but the singer stayed, keeping his arm around Shaun’s waist, his breathing evening out after a while as he fell asleep.

The drummer stayed awake for awhile, just listening to Ben breathe next to him, feeling the singer’s warm arm around him.

And he figured that he could deal with this.

Though he might have to deal with this ever-growing crush after all this.

But he also figured that he could deal with it in the morning.

For now, he could just enjoy what he had and what Ben had said.

_ “I’ll be here if you need me.” _


End file.
